Archive for Jan 30, 2012

If you want an iPhone 4S in Hong Kong, you'll need an Internet connection, a government-issued photo ID, and a bit of luck. Apple has amended its online lottery system after scalpers and bots created mayhem and an utter lack of fairness to normal consumers. The new system makes Hong Kong the most stringent country to officially offer the newest iPhone.

Shrug off that case of the Mondays you've had all day and check out what made news in the gadget world today. For starters, there are a couple new developments in mobile data plans in the US. On the Verizon side, the carrier may soon be launching family data plans, making it a bit more affordable to have multiple smartphones on the same account. T-Mobile is playing the restriction card, as it will start imposing data roaming limits on April 5.

Those of you sticking so close to the iPhone app streets that you can tell that an app is coming before its developer even develops it knew that there was an app by the name of QuasiDisk out there today, one that allowed you to take advantage of tethering from your iPhone. This functionality is now allowed otherwise, so it was assumed early on that this app would, upon being updated to having this ability, be cut down from the market like a kite from a tree. That has happened, but not before thousands of users got ahold of it, fully functional.

T-Mobile will be making some changes to its domestic data roaming come April 5, according to a leaked internal document obtained by TmoNews. Instead of capping data speeds for domestic data roaming, T-Mobile will completely cut off your data if you exceed your allotment for the billing cycle. This means you won't be able to connect unless you use WiFi or return to an area within your T-Mobile network.

One of the most famous suites of software on earth, Microsoft's Office, has been released in its 15th iteration this morning as a Technical Preview. As JP Hough, CVP of Development for Microsoft's Office Division notes, Office 15 is the codename of the next generation of Microsoft's Office products, and this Technical Preview is the first Phase of release for a limited group of customers under non-disclosure agreements. This release does not currently have any semblance of a price or release date, and this early build will not be released to the public.

Several updates to software surrounding AirPort and Time Capsule have been sent out by Apple today, each of them coming to users through Software Update. The first update is to 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models - in it, users get an issue fixed for wireless performance amongst other smaller issues. The other update is for AirPort Utility 6.0 for Mac OS X Lion, it being an update for you to more effectively manage your Wifi network and AirPort base stations galore.

Following the Carrier IQ controversy over its data tracking software on mobile devices, new legislation is being proposed that would require both wireless carriers and mobile device manufacturers to disclose of any monitoring software. Rep. Ed Markey drafted the new mobile privacy bill, which would place the Federal Trade Commission in charge of making sure mobile companies comply.

Panasonic is developing new applications that use WiGig technology, which can wirelessly transfer data at multi-gigabit speeds. Although first announced back in 2009, adoption of WiGig has taken some time. Panasonic is demoing the technology in use on prototype SD cards that work with tablets to transfer videos to in-car entertainment systems.

There's a brand new set of no less than seven CPUs out on the market announced by Intel today, each of them with a slight modification over the last comparable version of them, with both Core i5 and Celeron units up for sale. Each of these units has been announced extremely silently for one reason or another, most likely because they do not offer major advances over the last wave of comparable cores. Other than the P at the end of the names for two of the three Core i5 units possible meaning a modification to the GPU has been made, not one whole heck of a lot is known about the innards of these products.

The Nintendo DSi isn't what you'd expect teachers to want in classrooms, but that may change as the handheld gaming device explores new uses in education. Along with Japanese telecom company NTT, Nintendo is testing speech-to-text and speech recognition technology on the DSi for students with hearing impairment or other disabilities.